The Chinese Chang’e-6 mission plans to bring a sample from the lunar farside in 2024. Here the characterization and scientific potential of the three candidate landing sites are presented. They are located around the roughly 4-Gyr-old Apollo crater, located within the South Pole–Aitken basin.

JWST observations of GRB 221009A reveal the associated supernova, confirming that the GRB resulted from the collapse of a rapidly rotating massive star. The lack of r-process emission suggests that these extreme events are not key sources of the heaviest elements.

A three-dimensional reconstruction of a bright flare orbiting the black hole Sagittarius A^* is computationally recovered from ALMA light curve data by constraining a neural network with a gravitational model of black holes.

V1298 Tau b is a 20–30-Myr-old Jovian-sized planet with a haze-free, metal-poor atmosphere and a potentially hot interior. These properties suggest that V1298 Tau b formed in situ via pebble accretion and that it is still evolving and likely to become a Neptune- or sub-Neptune-sized planet.

An updated Jeans parameter that includes tidal forces can distinguish the various driving forces, both exogenous and endogenous, of atmospheric escape from low-mass close-in exoplanets. Depending on its value, escape can be dominated by tidal forces, extreme ultraviolet stellar radiation or a combination of the two.

Decametre radio observations are challenging due to the presence of the ionosphere. Here Groeneveld et al. present a strategy to correct for the ionosphere that allows them to make sharp decametre radio images from the ground with the LOFAR telescope.

Phase-resolved mid-infrared observations from JWST of the hot gas giant WASP-43b detect a day–night difference of 659 ± 19 K. Comparison with climate models shows that the observations are compatible with cloudy skies, at least on the nightside, and the lack of methane detection suggests the presence of disequilibrium chemistry.

Cassini tracking data yield a lower Love number for Titan than previous analysis. This result is compatible with a low-density internal ocean that might consist of a mix of water and ammonia.

In situ observations reveal explosive mass ejections due to magnetic reconnection in the ionosphere of Mars, with a density cavity as direct evidence. Reconnection between strong open crustal fields can rapidly eject a large amount of mass from Mars.

As the eighth anniversary of Nature Astronomy’s opening to submissions nears, we say goodbye to our inaugural Chief Editor, May Chiao, and welcome her successor, Paul Woods, to the helm.